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Afrikaans pupil attacked by 16-member gang

Candy King, 17, suffers attack by 16 youths with knives, who kicked her and robbed her cellphone right in front of Afrikaans Hercules High School, Centurion

2009-11-27 CENTURION, GAUTENG. Afrikaans Hercules High School pupil Candy King, 17, was attacked by a 16-member, armed black youth gang from a neighbouring school, kicked, cursed and robbed of her cellphone. When local residents rushed to the girl’s aid, the black youth gang also attacked the residents and threw them with rocks.

Virginia Keppler of Beeld newspaper reports that the racist attack against the Afrikaans pupils at the school in Centurion occurred at around 10:40am when the white Standard-Ten pupil was sitting in front of the school with a classmate, waiting for her mom Lee to load them up.

A large group of male pupils from another school, all blacks, then walked up to the girl, threatened her with knives, kicked and beat her and robbed her cellphone. She said the youth gang had first walked up to another schoolmate, hit him through the face and searched him – but found nothing of value on him. Then they did the same thing to two other schoolmates before attacking her, speaking to her in English, demanding to know what was in her satchel. When she said there was nothing in it, he pulled out a knife, held it to her throat, and grabbed her cellphone. She tried to grab it back but three of her friends then also started beating her. She fought back she said, hitting one hard. They then started beating and kicking her and threw her to the ground. “I screamed to my girlfriend to run away, but she stood right there. they pushed me over again, kicked me in the ribs and then ran off.’

A man in a car who happened to drive by, chased the boys in his car – and actually captured one, loading him into his car to try and take him to the police station. Several residents also stormed from their homes around the school and started chasing the boys – who threw them with rocks. The boy in the car then managed to escape, and the entire gang – which was dressed in the uniforms of a neighbouring school – then ran off.

The term "genocide" was coined by legal scholar Raphael Lemkin in 1943, writing:

'Generally speaking, genocide does not necessarily mean the immediate destruction of a nation, except when accomplished by mass killings of all members of a nation. It is intended rather to signify a coordinated plan of different actionsaiming at the destruction of essential foundations of the life of national groups, with the aim of annihilating the groups themselves.

The objectives of such a plan would be the disintegration of the political and social institutions, of culture, language, national feelings, religion, and the economic existence of national groups, and the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity and lives of the members of such groups... '